“Wal-Mart to open up to 110 new China stores by 2016” by Matthew Miller at Reuters. “Wal-Mart will open up to 110 facilities in China between 2014 and 2016, in addition to the 30 it has already opened this year, it said at a press event in Beijing on Thursday. Wal-Mart has closed 11 stores and is looking to close 15-30 others over the next 18 months, said Greg Foran, chief executive of Wal-Mart China, in what he called part of a rationalization process.” Read more

“Target’s ‘Buy Online – Pick-up in Store’ Expands to all Stores” at AP via Boston Herald. “Target Corp. said Wednesday that the service is now in about half of its 1,800 U.S. stores and will be expanded to the rest of its U.S stores by Nov. 1. The discounter is joining other retailers including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Best Buy Stores Inc. and Sears Holdings Corp. that have had similar services for a couple of years.” Read more

“18 Depressing Photos That Show Why Nobody Wants To Shop At Sears” by Ashley Lutz at Business Insider. “Brian Sozzi, chief equities strategist at Belus Capital Advisors, took poignant photos inside of New Jersey and New York Sears locations. “To understand why Sears is in a ‘sell stores mode’ one must look no further than the stores themselves, where the truth is to be found,” Sozzi writes. His photos show the sad reality of what Sears is today.” See the photos

“Can Walmart Shake Up The Renewable Energy Sector?” by Ariel Schwartz at Fast Company. “Walmart has 150 solar installations in seven countries, as well as 26 fuel cell installations in the U.S. and a smattering of experimental micro-wind and large scale wind projects. “One of the big paradigm shifts was that we had to start opening up our doors. In the past, we thought we could keep our heads down. We had to learn from experts, and we started meeting with NGOs and academia,” says Kim Saylors, VP of Energy at Walmart.” Read more

“Walmart Unveils ‘Largest Green Roof in Portland’ “ by Steve Law at Sustainable Life. “Walmart will unveil what’s billed as the largest green roof in the city of Portland when it opens its new store near Delta Park next month. Nearly half the Walmart Supercenter’s 92,000-square-foot roof will be covered in vegetation and sediment, which will help cool the store and manage storm water.” Read more

“Target & Walmart Are Top Brands with New Millennial Parents” at Ad Week “Millennials have a reputation as image-conscious and spoiled. But growing up at a time that saw America at war, 9/11 and economic uncertainty, this generation of new parents is actually less image-conscious and more pragmatic than you might think. In other words, bye, bye Apple; hello, Walmart.” See the Infographic

“Aldi Tops Ranks of ‘Simple’ Companies’ “ at Supermarket News. “Grocery discounter Aldi was named to the top spot of a list of global brands ranked by their simplicity by Siegel + Gale, which announced findings of its annual Global Simplicity Index on Wednesday. The report, based on a study of 10,000 consumers in seven countries, scored Aldi as the most simple global brand, up nine spots from last year.” Read more

“Getting into Harvard Easier than Getting a Job at Wegmans” by Peter Van Allen at Philly Business. “Some 10,000 people applied for 500 positions at a Wegmans slated to open next month…About 500 new employees were hired from the applicant pool — a 5 percent acceptance rate. By comparison, Harvard had an undergraduate acceptance rate of 5.8 percent in the most recent year.” Read more

“Pop-Up Stores Raise a Question for Landlords” by Maura Webber Sadovi at WSJ. “The issue took on new significance when home-furnishing retailer Crate and Barrel said it would operate pop-up stores for the first time in its roughly 50-year history. The temporary stores, which will be much smaller than a typical Crate and Barrel store, are set to open this and next month in Las Vegas, Des Moines, Nashville and Albany, N.Y.” Read more

“Wal-Mart adds tablets to its store trade-in program” at The City Wire. “Wal-Mart said today (Oct. 23) that customers can trade in their tablets at more than 3,600 stores and Sam’s Club locations nationwide. Similar to its new smartphone trade-in program, customers and members can receive up to $300 for their trade, which will then be applied toward the purchase of a new tablet.” Read more

“99 Cents Only chain lays off 160 workers” by Shan Li at LA Times. “99 Cents Only, which was acquired in 2011 by L.A. private equity firm Ares Management and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, operates 238 stores in California, 44 in Texas, 33 in Arizona and 17 in Nevada.” Read more